Washington: Surrogates for both Democratic candidates sniped back and forth on the cable shows over whether front-runner Hillary Clinton should release the transcripts of her paid speeches to financial institutions. A senior adviser to Clinton’s campaign on Friday decried the Sanders’ campaign’s insinuation, news organisation Politico reported.

“This is what the Sanders campaign wants, right? The insinuation that there is something nefarious,” Karen Finney said during an interview on MSNBC, remarking that when Sanders was asked directly about whether the speeches changed Clinton’s policies, he “had no answer”.

Chief pollster and strategist Joel Benenson insisted that Sanders himself had put the issue to rest by failing to point to a specific instance.

The Sanders campaign, meanwhile, conceded that its candidate could have been more direct in addressing whether money from Wall Street and other interests has tainted Clinton’s judgment and credibility.

Clinton has long maintained that she will release the transcripts of her paid speeches when every other candidate in both parties does the same.